Reskinning a Creature

Sometimes you need a creature with abilities that are almost exactly the same as those of a published creature. In that case, it can be more efficient to simply “reskin” the old creature rather than design a new one—that is, to change the description but keep the abilities mostly the same. Occasionally, reskinning requires small mechanical adjustments. For instance, an ice squox that has immunity to cold, an aura that deals cold damage, and the ability to freeze people in place with its jaws to deal persistent cold damage and suppress them could be reskinned as a caustic animate tree that has immunity to acid, an aura that deals acid damage, and branch attacks that smear sticky acidic sap on a creature's body when it hits, dealing persistent acid damage and suppressing them.